December 22, 2009

For those of you who check this page regularly, my sincere apologies for disappearing off the face of the earth for the past two months. I blame the perfect storm of fleas and laziness.

And now, I will distract you with a cute picture of Zoë and her father.

Snow!

The holidays are upon us. I love this time of year, even though the season invariably leaves me in a procrastination-induced tizzy. Our Christmas cards just arrived this afternoon, and if I can get them out by tomorrow, it will be the earliest we've ever sent them.

A milk mustache completes any look.

But what I love most about the holidays, aside from the festive lights and general goodwill towards other persons and animals, is that after the tizzy subsides, they offer the elusive pause button - a time to reflect on the past year, to embrace family and friends, and to huddle together, appreciating all we have.

And we have so very much.

Tops on the list, of course, being the funnny little person who shares our home and our genes.

Zoë is a show-stopper these days, and Tim and I are working hard to develop her arsenal of party tricks. Here are her current resume highlights:

She...- can imitate a monkey, a dog, or Santa Claus when prompted;- refuses to call me anything other than Beth. As in, "What's my name?" "Bepf." "Say MA-MA." "Bepf." "Who is this maternal creature who could also be called your MOTHER?" "Bepf";- has, in contrast, called Tim "Dada" since she was eight months old;- dances to the command "Michael Jackson";- says "uh-pppppbbbbbth" for both up and down;- will thump her chest whenever she sees a picture of a gorilla; and- calls herself "ZOOOOOOH-Zoh."